I know there are lots of Juwan-haters on this board, but he's always been one of my favorite players back to Washington days. Class act, solid, dependable. However, yesterday's game (GS) was the first I caught this year, and he sucked. Looking at his stats for the year, he's averaging 7 pts (on 40% shooting) and fewer than 6 boards in 28 minutes. This is very unlike the guy who was averaging 17 ppg just two years ago. Does he have any problems? In shape? Heart medication? (by the way, he's still better than swift, he of the four fouls in 16 minutes)
no, he's just been moving past his prime, and this year, he finally hit a brick wall. I think I can officially say that with the pick-up of Swift this off-season, we STILL HAVE NO PF. Sorry, all you people high on Swift, but he STINKS. I don't see the progress. Every night he looks lazy and lost. He puts up little numbers, he doesn't provide the great defense the Rox org though, and his scoring is low (not that it should be sky high, but he still has--or had-- a little of an offensive game. Oh, and BTW, where the heck is his flashy dunking??? He gets maybe .5 dunks a game now? I remember watching him throw it down in Memphis, but that's been non-existant. Actually, I remember more missed dunks by him this year than dunks. I'm just not seeing it.
Thanks Debbie Downer! I'm calling it a slump. You call it "past his prime" if you want...I don't buy it. But true Juwan hasn't looked as good the last few games. Actually, ever since Swift has been playing more minutes, Juwan seems to proportionally decline. Juwan was always good for those 15"-18" top-of-the-key shots but even that has gone away. He's still moving well and active so I expect his shot will return. Swift is playing MUCH better. I don't care if he isn't dunking. If that's your criteria then I'm not sure what to say about that. Swift was constantly making defensive mistakes and holding onto the ball when he gets it on offense. He looks much smoother now and isn't making as many mistakes. I suspect soon that'll start to translate into much better statistics ...hopefully not to the detriment of Howard's game, however.
I dont think that howard is in the rocket's gameplan. He is a great offensive player but JVG doesnt seem interested. Probably the same thing with Stro. PFs arent an important part of our system.
Great offensive player?!? How are you going to defend that? Have you watched him play the last couple of seasons? The guys is as undependable as they come and we have him at his worst. In short, your post is, well, stupid.
You Juwan apologists are hilarious. You don't think Juwan is past is prime? You do realize Howard has been in this "slump" the whole season right?
Juwon Howard has always been a scrub. In his prime, if there was anything as such, he was a 4th option at best. He is SOFT! How can he play power forward position with that label? I was laughing my @ss off couple seasons ago when Dallas got him thinking he will toughen up their frontcourt. Yeah right..... Didnt take them long to see how much of a scrub he is. Atleast we got him coz he was included as trash in the Tmac lineup. Only reason has/had gotten playing time is because we havent had a decent PF in a long time. Mo Taylor, buh bye! Stro still learning the system, but I think it has come to the pint where Stro has passed Howard. JVG should start Stro now. Howard is too much of a liability and results in slow start to each half. So whats wrong with Juwon Howard? -He is terrible at rebounding. I have seen guards snatch rebounds away from him on a consistent basis. -He has absolutely no post moves. He will throw a desperate jump hook up there and then plead for a foul. -Did I say he is SOFT? He gets outmuscled by guards for the rebounds and loose balls. -He cant jump. -Most of the time he is a reciepnt of a good pass under the basket from either Yao or Tmac. What does he do? Instead of a sure layup, he gets rejected more often than not. Its a disgrace. Other times he will just brick it because he is so scared of being rejected. -Contrary to what some believe, he does not have high basketball IQ. Anyone who comes out of Michigan's Fab Five lacks that automatically. He is semi-good at following simple instructions from the coach. He wil listen to what JVG will tell him to do and he goes on trying to do it in a mechanical way. Due to his scrubiness, he still manages to bungle up. -He will give you as many blocks a season as Earl Boykins. Boykins might have more. Seriously, he does not even make an attempt to challenge a shot. He just stands there, gazing at the guy while he is making a layup. By God man! Just make an attempt, even a half-hearted one. -He is a defensive liability most of the time and gets abused. Why do some think that Rockets would have beaten Mavs if we had Juwon? Who would Juwon guard? Nowitzki would have scored 30 a game if guarded by Juwon. -He makes some of the most boneheaded passes sometimes. Again, this comes from his mechanical approach to the game. He is too preprogrammed to do things and just does not improvise during the game. -Everytime he screws up he has the biggest grinch grin on his face. I swear, my girlfriend and I just wanna reach across our TV and slap the sh*t out of him. And I dont get this "he makes the 15 footer consistently" thing. If that is ALL he does, we can get a friggin guard to do the same. Atleast the guard will get some rebounds and blocked shots too!!!! Lately, that shot has not being going in either for Howard. So that makes him as valuable to the Rockets as, let's say, a used roll of toilet Paper.
I'm not appologizing. I'm just not blaming his age. His best days are definately behind him. But that isn't to say he can't still be productive. I think that either/or A) He's in a slump. B) He can't be a second fiddle PF (since Swift is now taking a larger role). Either case, I don't blame his poor play on his age. That's too convenient of an excuse. He's still healthy and moving well. Wesley is older and playing better. Deke is MUCH older and player better.
He had a bad game last night and hasn't been putting up the numbers this year, but I really don't think he's as bad as some of you are making him out to be. I think his role this year is just a bit different and you have to assess his performance based on that. It seems he's trying to give the team that fire that we're always talking about. He's been the only one willing to dish out the hard fouls and fight for the team...sort of an enforcer role. There's been plenty of games where he was the only player I could remember actually playing with an attitude. Say what you want about him, but I sure do appreciate him coming back in good shape after the knee injury and heart thing.
Howard should be the poster child for Free enterprise and Sports agents 101. He got a 100 + million dollar contract as a result of the bidding war between Pat Riley and Washington- Wes Unseld brain trust (rust). He then signed a multi year deal for 6 mil + per year. Simply amazing. Can't blame CD for this as he was part of TMAc package. No one really expected much from him.... I would like to see a little more effort though. Try to be a little more like Ryan Bowen Juwan - money Howard.
Some of you are getting a bit extreme about how bad Juwan is. However,there is no denying that he is not as good as he was last year before his health problems. You have to wonder if he can ever return to even that level. How many years till we can trade his expiring contract? Till then the Rockets will always be struggling for overall team talent.
Glynch, I wish I was exagerrating, seeing as how think our PF position is. But I truly believe I am not. Look at some of the points I made above and tell me where I am off? BTW, I am not basing it on one or few games. I have watched every single rockets games for God knows how long. And I also watch othe rteams and how their players perform from NBA league pass.
I think Juwan has 3 years or more remaining on this contract. He may improve though in 2 years.... The last year of his contract he will take Moochie or Charlie Ward's place on the sideline.
Juwan is what he is - a professional, hard-working player who is good to decent at most things but not great at anything. Everything he does is mechanical and deliberate. Therefore, it's easy for a decent (or better) defender to read what Juwan is going to do and stop him. And because he's lost quickness (especially in the last few years), defenders have even more time to react to stop him. Because of his style of play, Juwan really should have emphasized strength training over the past years. He's not going to get any quicker, but he could get stronger, which would make it harder to dislodge him from the post or push him away from a rebound. Unfortunately, he hasn't done this, and has really slipped into mediocrity. Juwan would probably be very effective against 2nd and 3rd string forwards. Unfortunately, he seems to react very poorly to coming off the bench (like last year) and needs to start to be productive at all. Right now, I wish we had traded Howard for Sam Cassell last year. Yes, he was playing well and we would have been short a Power Forward, but his limitations and contract are an albatross around the Rockets neck. The team is really feeling the weight of his poor play now.
You didn't think you were a bit extreme in bashing Howard? I guess the vast majority of NBA players should be called scrub by your standard. Howard averaged 17/7 in his first 10 years. Look, I never liked his game. He was clearly overrated when he got his ludicrous 100 mil contract. But he was clearly a solid NBA player in his prime. And his second contract is about right for his worth and he is no longer overrated. I don't know what the hate is about?
Man, lot of Juwon hate here. The dude isn't great, that's for sure, but he's been solid. The guy is slumping, no doubt, but he can hit the mid-range jumper, rebounds decently, actually understands JVG's system, and DOES have a competent post-up game regardless of what some haters want to say while he's slumping. Juwon had 4 assist yesterday IIRC. Not bad. He does produce and you never really see him hogging the ball...he knows his role, sure he's not TD, Garnett, Amare, etc. but what other 'role playing' PF could you put in his place that would make a much bigger difference?
